US presidential candidate Trump threatened at a campaign event not to protect defaulting NATO partners from Russia. He would even encourage Moscow to be aggressive. The White House reacted clearly.
Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump would not grant protection from Russia to NATO partners who do not meet their financial obligations. The former US president said this on Saturday at a campaign event in the US state of South Carolina.
The “president of a great country” once asked him whether the United States would still protect this country from Russia even if it did not pay for defense spending, Trump said. He replied: “No, I wouldn't protect you.” What's more, he would “even encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want.” It was unclear whether there had ever been such a conversation between Trump and a head of state, because Trump also said: “Let's assume that happened.”
White House: “Appalling and disturbing”
The White House reacted immediately. “Encouraging attacks by a murderous regime on our closest allies is appalling and disturbing,” spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “It endangers America’s national security, global stability and our domestic economy.” Instead of calling for wars and promoting “deranged chaos,” US President Joe Biden will “continue to strengthen American leadership.”
During a recent visit to Washington, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg countered fears that the outcome of the US presidential election could endanger the future of NATO. Stoltenberg told the US broadcaster CNN at the end of January that he had worked with Trump for four years and listened to him carefully. Trump's main criticism, that the allies are spending too little on NATO, has been received. They have significantly increased their defense spending in recent years.
Trump repeatedly threatened to withdraw from NATO
Trump, who ruled in the White House from 2017 to 2021, repeatedly threatened to withdraw the United States from the defense alliance. As the Washington Post reported, he already mentioned a meeting at an event in 2022 in which he told NATO partners that he would not stick to the alliance's defense commitment if the countries did not spend more on their defense budgets. Accordingly, it may be an allusion to a statement made by Trump at the NATO summit in 2018.
The Republican wants to be re-elected president next November and is fighting for his candidacy in his party's primaries. Among other things, he promotes a fundamental reassessment of NATO.
At the campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump also announced again that he would deport people on a large scale. Irregular immigration is one of the dominant issues in the US election campaign. A frequently used argument on the Republican side is that taxpayers' money should not be spent on protecting other countries – such as Ukraine – but on protecting their own borders.
